Understanding Different Therapy Modalities and How to Choose What’s Right for You
Finding the right type of therapy can feel overwhelming. There are so many approaches: somatic therapy, EMDR, AEDP, ISTDP, play therapy, Internal Family Systems (IFS), attachment-based therapy, Jungian analysis, dreamwork, and more. Each has its own lens on what causes emotional pain and how healing happens.
If you’ve ever wondered, “What is the difference between the therapy acronyms?”or “Which therapy is best for me?”, this guide breaks down what each modality is, how it works, and what types of issues it can help with, so you can make a more informed choice.
Somatic Therapy:
Somatic therapy is a body-based therapy that focuses on the connection between the mind and the nervous system. It’s especially helpful for trauma survivors who feel “stuck” in physical symptoms like tension, numbness, or hypervigilance.
Instead of only talking about what happened, somatic therapists help clients notice sensations, release stored stress, and regulate the nervous system through grounding and movement. This process supports deep trauma release and reconnection with the body’s natural rhythm.
Popular approaches include Somatic Experiencing and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, both designed to restore safety and resilience in the body.
Best for: trauma, chronic stress, dissociation, body-based anxiety.
EMDR Therapy:
EMDR therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a structured form of trauma treatment that helps people reprocess painful or overwhelming memories so they no longer trigger intense emotional or physical responses.
During reprocessing therapy sessions, the therapist guides you to recall a distressing memory while using bilateral stimulation (like eye movements or tapping) to help your brain integrate the experience.
EMDR is one of the most evidence-based therapies for PTSD, supported by organizations like the APA and WHO. It can also be highly effective for phobias, anxiety, and self-limiting beliefs rooted in trauma.
Best for: PTSD, trauma, phobias, negative self-beliefs, or stuck emotional patterns.
AEDP Therapy:
AEDP therapy (Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy) is an emotion-focused therapy rooted in attachment science. It helps clients access and process core emotions that may have been avoided or shut down due to early trauma or relational pain.
In sessions, the therapist takes an active and empathic stance, helping clients move through difficult feelings into attachment healing and transformation. The process is both experiential and relational, creating new emotional experiences that reshape old patterns.
This type of relational therapy is especially helpful for clients who crave connection but fear vulnerability, or who struggle to feel safe in relationships.
Best for: relational trauma, emotional regulation, attachment wounds, anxiety, and depression.
ISTDP Therapy:
ISTDP therapy (Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy) is a highly focused, dynamic psychotherapy that helps people uncover unconscious emotions driving their suffering.
It’s “intensive” not because it’s harsh, but because it aims to reach the root of pain quickly, such as early attachment wounds, guilt, anger, or loss, rather than staying at surface-level symptoms.
This short-term therapy is evidence-based and emotion-driven, designed to help clients experience genuine emotional healing and long-term change.
Best for: anxiety, depression, psychosomatic symptoms, trauma, and self-sabotaging patterns.
Internal Family Systems (IFS):
IFS therapy (Internal Family Systems) is a gentle, integrative approach that views the mind as made up of “parts”, inner voices or subpersonalities, each carrying its own role, feelings, and wounds.
Through this parts work, clients learn to connect with their compassionate core Self and heal wounded parts by releasing old burdens and beliefs.
Internal Family Systems is especially effective for trauma healing, inner conflict, shame, people-pleasing, and self-esteem struggles. It’s a powerful way to build internal safety and harmony.
Best for: complex trauma, inner conflict, shame, people-pleasing, and self-esteem struggles.
Attachment-Based Therapy:
Attachment-based therapy draws on attachment theory to understand how early relationships with caregivers shape how we love, trust, and connect as adults.
This approach helps people recognize and repair insecure attachment patterns, whether that looks like fear of abandonment, emotional avoidance, or difficulty trusting closeness.
Through this form of attachment therapy, the therapeutic relationship itself becomes a secure base for relational healing and the development of secure attachment.
Best for: relationship issues, codependency, anxiety in relationships, or intimacy struggles.
Jungian Therapy/ Dream Analysis
Jungian therapy, also known as depth psychology, explores the unconscious through dreams, symbols, and patterns that appear in daily life.
Rather than focusing solely on symptom reduction, Jungian therapists guide clients into self-discovery, meaning-making, and integration.
Using dream analysis and symbolic amplification, clients uncover parts of the psyche seeking expression, leading to greater creativity, wholeness, and awareness of the unconscious mind.
Best for: identity exploration, life transitions, creativity, existential or spiritual questions.
Bridging the Gaps:
Why Therapies Overlap & Hybrid Paths Exist:
It’s important to see that modalities aren’t always clean silos. Many modern therapists train across multiple frameworks and integrate components, for example, combining somatic therapy with IFS and EMDR, or blending AEDP with relational therapy techniques.
The best therapy often breathes between paradigms and the match between therapist and approach matters just as much as the modality itself.
How to Choose What’s Best for You:
Here are some reflective questions and practical tips to help you lean into a modality (or blend):
1. Start with what you’re ready for
If you feel emotionally fragile or startled by deep work, somatic therapy or gentler relational modalities like AEDP or IFS might be safer entry points than full-velocity ISTDP or EMDR.
2. Tune into your body’s signals
Do you carry tension, numbness, or dissociation? That’s often a cue for somatic, sensorimotor, or body-based therapy.
3. Notice your language & metaphors
Do you speak in myth, dream, or images? Jungian therapy or dream analysis may resonate.
Do you speak in parts, voices, or internal conflict? IFS therapy might feel like home.
4. Consider your priority: symptom, relational, or existential growth
If alleviating symptoms (like anxiety or depression) is urgent, modalities with more structured protocols like EMDR therapy or ISTDP therapy might help.
If repairing relational wounds is central, AEDP, attachment-based therapy, or relational therapy may be ideal.
If meaning and identity work draw you, depth psychology or Jungian analysis may ground you.
5. Ask therapists about their training and integration
Some therapists say “I’m EMDR-trained,” but also weave in somatic therapy or attachment healing. Ask, “What modality are you using in session, and how flexible is your approach?”
6. Try a sampling phase
You don’t have to commit forever. Try three months, then check in: How does it feel in your body, emotions, and inner life? Therapy can evolve as you evolve.
7. Don’t mistake intensity for progress
Some modalities feel dramatic and others subtle. Trauma healing isn’t always loud, sometimes it’s the quiet settling of the body after years of tension.
The Bottom Line
Every therapy modality offers a different doorway into healing. What matters most is that the process feels safe, collaborative, and aligned with what you need right now.
At Our Kind Therapy, our clinicians draw from several evidence-based modalities, blending body-based, attachment-focused, and trauma-informed approaches to meet you where you are.
If you’re curious about which approach might best support your healing, you can book a free consult to talk with one of our therapists and explore what feels like the right fit.
Written by Salma Jamjoom
